FREE Weekend & SFF Saturday 2/23/13

I'm back!  I won't bore you with the varied (and disturbing) reasons why I haven't been posting for Science Fiction & Fantasy Saturdays.  Just know that I haven't abandoned the story of Prisoner 1138 and I hope to share more of his journal with you in the coming weeks.  This week, however, I'm killing two planets with one asteroid: posting a snippet of DREMIKS which is FREE on Amazon for the weekend of February 23rd and 24th.

Amazon US link here
Page with links for other countries here.

If you've already read DREMIKS and are looking for other scifi and fantasy books, please check out the links at the SFF Saturday site.

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(This is a brief, 10 sentence, description of Dwax, the Dremikian alien aboard the spaceship Hudson.)




Dwax floated to the medical bay. He preferred humans to use the term “float” instead of the repulsive “slither” that some found so applicable. He wished he could understand the human psyche’s need to associate anything that had tentacles with slimy, slithering, creatures of the muck and wet. Dwax had never once slithered and he hated being dirty. In one of his arm tentacles, he carried a stack of disks for Dr. Ruger.

Trained to follow in his father’s diplomatic footsteps, according to the rigid caste system of his home-world, Dwax had no useful medical knowledge. His father had, however, considered it a diplomat’s duty to supply Dr. Ruger with several weighty tomes on the subject. Much as he was bored by all things medicinal, Dwax was fascinated by the coffee-skinned doctor and her soft voice. Happily freed from a meeting with Chancellor Trell, Dwax looked forward to an afternoon in the doctor’s company.

Review: "Bypass Gemini"

If you follow my reviews here, or on Goodreads, you'll know that I rarely give a book 5 stars.  Maybe I'm overly critical, maybe I'm just too damn picky, but few books--in my opinion--deserve top marks.

Joseph Lallo's "Bypass Gemini" deserves 5 stars.

Mr. Lallo was a fellow finalist in the "Kindle Book Review's Top Indie Books of 2012".  We exchanged books as a professional courtesy.  I am now convinced I got the better end of that exchange. This book was well written, had excellent pacing, and possessed enough dry wit and bad puns to have me laughing well past my bedtime.

The title character is a good boy who made bad choices and is now struggling though adulthood paying for those choices.  He works multiple jobs to make ends meet--or not meet, as the case may be.  Hair-raising chases, impressive flight maneuvers, and a whopping portion of pure dumb luck keep the hero, and the reader, hopping from one planet to the next.

There's plenty in this book that could have turned out cliched and cloying, but Lallo's style leaves it feeling fresh and innovative.  There's the ex who's not quite over the hero ( and he's not anywhere near over her), evil corporate overlords, baffling arrays of technological advances, a smartass computer, and even a certifiably (with a certificate to prove it!) mad scientist.  Oh--and there's the Funk.  I won't spoil that bit, because it is a hidden gem in this book that deserves a proper reveal.

Make no mistake, this is true science fiction, not just a space-based action novel.  The genius in "Bypass Gemini", though, is that the science is coupled with dissembling sarcasm that puts the lay-reader at ease.  There's plenty of "nerd porn" for hard science fans, but it is not provided in a droning litany destined to bore senseless the average reader.  Here's a perfect example:

"Bigger, beefier versions of the same things that made his delivery bike work, the repulsors used the interplay between two tangible energy fields to create a synchronized wave pattern capable of instituting temporary charge differences between the vehicle and road surface for the purposes of facilitating the attraction and repulsion necessary to maintain an approximately constant distance.

In other words, he had traction now."

There are a few editing flaws in the book ( two weirdly truncated sentences that may very well be blamed on html formatting errors) but they give this work a level of authenticity instead of distracting the reader.  My Kindle version was well formatted with proper chapter links and design.  This is the type of self published work that lends credibility to the genre.

If you love science fiction, action, adventures, technology, or just a good chase scene, you cannot afford to miss this story.  "Bypass Gemini" is easily the best science fiction book I've read in the past year.

Civ V: Gods and Kings Review

I'm putting on my Gamer Girl hat for the day and giving you my thoughts on Civilization V: Gods and Kings.  This expansion came out several months ago, but I was too busy to try it out (see: moving family 800+ miles to a new city, husband with a broken leg, book deadlines, etc).  My darling children gave me the expansion as Steam gift and I've been playing since Christmas Day.

Civ: V was already a great game, especially on a new, top-of-the-line, gaming system.  But, like all games and all RTS games in particular, there were annoying AI glitches and bugs.  The Gods & Kings expansion has gone a long way toward fixing these issues. Enemy civilizations will no longer ask for a declaration of friendship in one turn and denounce you the next turn. There are fewer "pointless upgrades" in both technology and city expansion.  There are more paths to victory.

The biggest improvement with this expansion, in my opinion, is the increased usefulness and variety of city states.  Prior to the Gods & Kings expansion, I would ignore cultural city states unless I was trying to a specific cultural victory achievement.  Maritime city states were merely prime targets for invasion as soon as possible.  After the expansion and the addition of mercantile and religious city state types, I've found myself actively engaged in winning over these "other" players.  City state missions have also become more worthwhile and varied, allowing players seeking scientific, cultural or diplomatic victories more routes to success.

The addition of religions and spies to the game has increased the complexity of the game, but not in such a way as to impede play.  I enjoyed trying to mold my state-sponsored religion to fit my civilizations goals. The faith based cultural benefits were useful and fun to tinker with. I absolutely adore using spies to fix elections in city states, steal technology, and capture other spies. If I could actually sabotage wonder construction or technology advancement, I'd think I'd be in RTS gamer heaven.

This is a true expansion, not downloadable fluff content.  The game has been changed in fundamental ways that invite a player to go back and play a previous civilization or map.  There are plenty of new civilizations to play, new wonders to build, and the technology tracks have been overhauled to be more comprehensive and fitting to their respective eras.

Civilization V: Gods & Kings is a comprehensive, well designed expansion to a masterpiece strategy game.  I highly recommend visiting the Steam store and downloading your copy.